CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"You talk to your sister lately?" Dean asks Nyx as he walks out of the bathroom in the motel room, and she nods.

"Yeah, a little. Things seem to have calmed down." The brunette tells him. "Bonnie's staying out of town with an aunt right now."

"How's she doing?"

She shrugs, still looking​ up at the ceiling from where she's laying on their bed. "I don't know, she doesn't take my calls. Maybe she blames​ me as much as I do."

"What happened to her grandmother is not your fault." He argues.

"You weren't​ there, Dean. Sheila knew that they weren't strong enough to do it, and I pushed​ it anyway. To save two vampires."

"So, why'd you do it?"

"Because I made a promise to Damon. And I keep my promises, no matter who they're to." She tells him, and he just looks at her for a second, thinking how strangely admirable that is, to care about keeping a promise to the vampire who killed her best friend.

Nyx's phone starts ringing then, and she sighs as she picks it up from beside her on the bed and looks at the caller ID — Care-Bear. "Hey, Care, what's up?" The brunette asks after she answers.

"I need some advice." Her friend says, and Nyx looks back up at the ceiling.

Sam's sitting on the other bed, and Dean's now flipping through channels on the tv. Nyx's on the same bed as Dean — the one that they share — but her head is at the foot of the bed, and he's sitting with his back against the headboard.

"Okay. Shoot." Nyx tells her.

"Well..." The blonde starts. "I was at Matt's, and we were on the couch...and his mom came home—"

"Kelly's in town?" She cuts her off, surprised to hear that. "Wow, that's... Wow."

"Yeah, she's back." Caroline nods.

"So, she walked in while you guys were on the couch?" Nyx prompts her to continue.

"And, well, uh..."

"Spit it out, Caroline." She says, and the blonde sighs.

"We were in a compromising position, and I don't know what to do now." She tells her.

"Define compromising."

"Shirtless."

"Him?" Nyx asks.

"Both of us." She tells her, and the brunette starts laughing. "Nycole! It's not funny."

"Oh, come on, it's a little funny."

"Nyx!" She yells at her.

"Okay, okay. So, you and Matt were...in a compromising position, and Kelly came home." She tries to keep from laughing as the boys both look at her.

"I shouldn't have called you."

"No, hey, wait. Care, I'm sorry." Nyx quickly says before Caroline can hang up on her. "Okay, I'll be serious. What happened after that?"

"I got dressed and left. But she obviously didn't like me."

"Well, yeah. She caught you, shirtless, with her son. Who basically lives alone, I might add."

"You are no help."

"Caroline. Care. Wait." Again, Nyx stops her from hanging up. "I got it out of my system. I'm good now. Did you call just to give me a good laugh or did you need something?"

"What do I do?" The blonde asks. "I'm Matt's girlfriend now, I want his mom to actually like me."

"So, you want me to tell you how to make Kelly Donovan like you?" Nyx questions.

"Yeah. You know, you've known her for a long time. I'd ask Elena, but that'd be even more awkward than this conversation." She says, and her friend sighs.

"Honestly, Care. I'd have better luck helping you get your parents back together." The brunette tells her. "Kelly is... Well, she's Kelly. She's stubborn, and she puts Matt on a pedestal that God Himself couldn't even fathom."

"So, you're telling me to give up?" She asks, annoyed.

"No, don't give up. Just...don't get your hopes​ up." Nyx says. "And remember, the most important part — Matt likes you. He doesn't go by what Kelly thinks."

"You think so?"

"Caroline, he works part time to keep the house that he lives in alone because Kelly's always off somewhere with a boyfriend that never sticks around long. He does that, on top of going to high school, and playing football." She reminds her. "He's more adult than I am. He's more adult than the two morons still gawking at me because of the beginning of our conversation."

Sam and Dean both quickly look away from Nyx, and Caroline sighs.

"So, Kelly?" The blonde asks.

"Either she loves you or she hates you, there is no in between." Nycole says. "But you are an incredible person, Caroline Forbes. You are smart, strong, independent, and a little crazy. Matt's​ a smart guy. He won't let his mom's​ opinion get in the way of how he feels​ about you. Trust me on that one."

"Thanks, Nyx." Caroline says, and she smiles.

"No problem, Care-Bear." She says, and her friend groans in annoyance.

"Must you?" She questions.

"Oh, yes, I definitely must." The brunette chuckles.

—

The boys and Nyx are at a diner for lunch when her phone rings. She quickly answers it without looking at the caller ID. "Hello?"

"I've been calling. Are you okay?" Elena asks as soon as she hears her sister's voice.

"I'm fine. I'm eating." Nycole tells her.

"I just thought you'd want to know, I found some information on Isobel." She tells her.

"What? I thought we agreed to look together."

"We did, but you're not here, and I wanna know at least a little about her. Jenna told me what she found, and we were looking a little. We found an address for an old friend of Isobel's, and I kinda just ended up there without even thinking about it." She says, thinking back to the day's events. "Her name's Trudie, and she told me a little bit about Isobel."

Nyx takes a deep breath. "So, what do you know?" She asks, kinda nervous, though she doesn't exactly know why.

"Her name's Isobel Flemming, and she was a cheerleader in high school." Elena tells her, and the older girl smiles.

"She was?" She asks. "That's actually kinda funny...and really cool."

"She went to Duke."

"In North Carolina?" Nyx asks as she looks over at Dean. What a coincidence that that's where she ended up when she met him.

"Yeah. Trudie said that she was smart." Elena says. "Which makes sense since you graduated after just two years in high school. You clearly got her brains."

"Hey, did she, uh..." Nyx looks down as she asks her next question. "Did you ask about our biological father?"

"She said she could never get Isobel​ to tell her." She says, and her sister sighs.

"So, the odds of finding him?"

"Probably pretty slim." The younger girl says, and she nods. "Something really weird though — this woman, Trudie... She knows about vampires. She didn't invite me in like people normally do, and she gave me vervain tea. And then when I asked her about it, she told me to leave."

"Okay. Yeah, that's weird."

"And when I was leaving, there was this man outside. He watched me get in my car and drive away from her house." She tells her.

"And that's even weirder." Nyx's eyebrows furrow.

"I'll call you if I find anything else... Unless you wanna come home and look with me?" Elena asks, sounding hopeful.

The older girl sighs as she considers it for a moment. "Maybe later, I still don't really want to be in Mystic Falls. And I don't know if... Looking for Isobel sounds okay in theory, but I don't know that I'm ready to start looking for her myself." She tells her sister. "Keep me updated, and make sure you keep Stefan with you. I don't want you by yourself if there's some creepy guy watching you outside of our birth mother's friend's house, who just so happens to know about vampires."

"I will, I promise." She nods, and Nyx can tell that there's something she's not telling her.

"Elena?"

"I'll talk to you later." She says and then hangs up. Nyx looks down at her phone and then shakes her head, not wanting to give it too much thought.

"What was that all about?" Dean asks, and she then looks up at the boys, who are both looking at her.

Nycole quickly — and quietly — fills them in on everything that Elena just told her.

—

"Nyx! Get out here and do something with your damn phone!" Dean yells from the main area of the room, and she walks out of the bathroom as she's putting her hair up into a ponytail.

The brunette picks up her phone because it's ringing again. "Hey, Care. Sorry, I was in the shower." The older girl says as she walks outside of the motel room and leans against the wall by the door.

"Why does it bother me so much that she hates me?" Caroline asks.

"What happened?"

"We're doing a bachelor raffle, and she came over to buy a ticket. I tried to talk to her, and she called me Matt's rebound girl." The blonde says, and Nyx sighs. "She loves Elena, and she misses you — she keeps asking about you every chance she gets. She keeps asking them when you're coming to town so that she can see you."

Nycole nods. "Yeah, all of that sounds exactly like Kelly." She tells her. "Forget her, Care. I love her, but she can be really bitchy. Now, let's listen to the rest of the raffle. Let me hear." She says, and Caroline chuckles before putting her on speaker so that she can hear everything too.

"Mrs. Lockwood's talking to Mr. Saltzman, the new History teacher." She tells her.

"Ooh, the one that Jenna's dating?" Nyx smiles.

"The very one."

"...give us a fun fact about Mystic Falls — something crazy." Carol Lockwood's voice comes through the phone. It's not as loud, but Nyx can still hear her.

Mr. Saltzman doesn't​ say anything.

"He's probably saving the best stories for his date." She says, trying to relieve some of the awkwardness. "And last, but not least, Damon Salvatore."

Caroline and Nyx both groan in annoyance.

"We don't have much on you." The mayor's wife says, and Nyx sighs.

Nyx is just curious who's gonna get a date with Mr. Saltzman at this point. And she wants to know​ if Jenna bought any tickets for the raffle.

"Well, I'm tough to fit on a card." Damon tells her, and Nyx can hear the smug smile in his voice.

"Do you have hobbies?" Carol asks him. "Like to travel?"

"Oh, yeah. L.A., New York. Couple of years ago, I was in North Carolina, near the Duke campus actually." He says, and the teenager stops fidgeting with the rock by her foot. No way is his mentioning that a coincidence. "I think— I think Alaric went to school there. Didn't you, Ric?"

"Did he say Duke?" Nyx asks Caroline.

"I don't know, I stopped listening when she got to Damon." Care tells her. "Why?" She asks, but the brunette doesn't answer. She just keeps listening to Damon.

"I know your wife did. I had a drink with her once. She was— She was a great girl." Damon says, and Nyx's eyes fill with tears. She knows​ this isn't going to end well. "I ever tell you that? 'Cause she was...delicious."

"Care, I, uh— I gotta go. But I'll talk to you later." Nycole tells her, and then quickly hangs up the phone.

The teenager's hands are shaking as her mind races with the possibilities of the meaning behind what he said, though it's not hard to guess. She doesn't know what to do now, and her body takes over before her mind comes to an unconscious decision. Nyx calls Damon, and finally he answers the second time she has to dial his number.

"Miss me already?" He asks, the smirk evident in his tone.

"Mr. Saltzman — what's his wife's name?" She asks him.

"How do you—"

"Answer the question, Damon." She cuts him off.

"It was Isobel. Isobel Flemming." He tells her, still confused. "Why?"

"Remember when I was in town before, and Stefan told me and Elena that we were adopted, and I asked you if you knew anything else about it?" She asks, fighting back tears.

"Yeah."

"Let me tell you what I recently found out." She says. "Elena's been looking into finding our birth parents, and she and Jenna managed to dig up some information on our biological mother. She went to Duke, and her name was Isobel Flemming."

"Nycole, I—"

"What? You don't want to gloat about how you killed her anymore?" The brunette questions as she shakes her head. "You son of a... And to think I actually thought that maybe we could be friends."

Nycole hangs up on him, and her phone starts ringing again. It's Elena.

"I just talked to Caroline." Elena says as soon as her sister answers the phone. "I didn't mean for you to find​ out about Isobel being dead like that. I was gonna tell you in person. Nyx, I'm so sorry."

"Did you know about Damon?"

"No. I swear, Nyx." She shakes her head. "I just found that out too."

The older girl doesn't say anything, she's trying to keep her breathing even.

"Stefan's taking me home. When are you coming back?" Elena asks, but before Nyx can answer, something else gets her attention.

"Elena?" She tries to get her sister to talk to her.

"Stop looking for what?" Elena asks, talking to someone else. "Isobel?"

"Elena, what's going on?" Nyx questions.

"She's alive? Does that mean she's a..."

Nyx then hears Stefan's voice, but she can't make out what he says.

"Yes. I do." Elena says. There's a pause, and then she screams.

"Elena!" Nyx yells, worried about what's going on over there.

A few seconds later the boys burst through the door and turn to look for Nyx. They try asking her what's going on, but she makes them be quiet as she listens for her sister.

"Elena, what the hell just happened?" Nycole questions.

"It was that man from Trudie's house — the one that I told you was outside." She tells her. "He was compelled to tell me to stop looking for Isobel. And then​ he killed himself when I told him that I understood. He stepped in front of a car." She whispers. "When are you coming home, Nyx?"

"I'm not going back, Elena." The older girl tells her sister. "I can't keep up with all of this vampire stuff, and now with Is... I just— I can't."

"What?"

"And I really think you should stop looking for Isobel. We had a mother, a great one. If this woman doesn't​ want us, then I don't want her." Nyx tells her and hangs up.

"Nyx, is everything okay?" Dean asks, and the brunette looks up at the boys with tears in her dark eyes.

"I don't know." She shakes her head. The three of them make their way back into the motel room then, and she fills the boys in on her three phone calls.